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Tuesday, December 24, 2013

We decided to stay home this year and just have our first Christmas in our new house together here in Colorado. The girls didn't want to travel...they always love staying home and playing with their new things, and we felt like we needed to give them a sense of normalcy with all of the changes they've been through this year.

Yesterday at the last minute, I decided to make my girls a couple of little money holders. I used a kraft petal card from my stash from Paper Source and traced it onto white cardstock to make my own. Think I'll keep one as a template to make lots more. Dressed it up with some Studio Calico things from their Magical line, a Pink Paislee Snow Village tag and a piece of flair - like the cherry on top!

The flair I used is by A Flair For Buttons on Etsy. LOVE these! My tendency is of course to hoard them, but I must share the cuteness. This way, I have an excuse to get more when I run out! See? I'm always thinking!

Here is one more...a little envelope that I found at Michaels, dressed up with a Pink Paislee Snow Village tag and canvas sticker, "happy" die cut from One Liners: Happy dies and another cute piece of flair.

After I inserted the money and a note, I folded the top over, added some twine and stapled it.

It's feeling really good to be able to create whatever I want and have time off from assignments. I feel like the pressure has been lifted a little bit. Ya know? Happy Holidays to you and yours, enjoy your family time!

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Papertrey Ink, my very favorite stamping company, has a ton of new products available this month tonight at 10pm EST. Here are a few more things I made with them. See the previous two posts for more! This card was made with It's a Banner Day and Cupid's Arrow stamp sets.

I stamped the floral background with a stamp from It's a Banner Day in Harvest Gold and added the arrow stamps over the top from Cupid's arrow, then a few stickers and paper at the top by Crate Paper. The black heart is stamped with Happy Hearts. The sentiment is from It's a Banner Day also.

This is Heart Squared stamps and Wonderful Words: Love stamps and die. Also added the big hearts, which are cut with Cover Plate: Hearts die.

The center one is stamped with the Happy Hearts stamps.The heart square stamp was inked with Harvest Gold on the bottom, then Sweet Blush in the center and Raspberry Fizz at the top, then I stamped it onto the card...love the ombre effect. I cut white cardstock hearts and vellum hearts and layered them, then stitched them with my machine and folded the vellum up to stand up off the card. Gives it an airy feel.

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Papertrey Ink has a few new dies coming out on the 15th that we are previewing today! Let's get started, shall we?

First up, I made a little "Love to Read" Book Pillow for my daughter Kati's bed. She loves reading, so I thought this would be a great gift for her for Valentine's Day...a new Junie B. Jones chapter book, complete with coordinating bookmark.

Those of you who don't have little girls...WAIT, don't tune this post out just yet! All you need to do is change the fabrics out for a boy's bed or use more elegant fabrics for a Book Pillow for your mother, friend, teacher or coworker. To create the pillow, I used two 8.5 x 11" pink felt pieces and one polka dot felt piece cut in half the long way. Sandwich them together with the polka dot one in the middle. Machine stitch around 3 sides, leaving the top open for stuffing the pillow. Turn it inside out. (Which will actually be right side out.) Stuff with quilt batting. Fold the top edges down and hot glue or stitch them shut. To dress up the pillow front, I die cut a One Liners die and hot glued it onto the pillow. I used hot glue for everything on the font, to attach the pom pom trim, hearts, gem, etc.Here's the pillow without the book:

The heart is a new die called Limitless Layers: Heart Stitches, whichI also used it to make a bookmark with seam binding for the tail. The little flower is made with seam binding also using hot glue and just folding it over, gluing and working my around the flower. I used some of the pom pom trim balls in the center.

The tag is cut with the new Tag Sale #9 die and stamped with the new The Best Is Yet To Be and The Best Is Yet To Be Sentiments stamps and adhered to a glassine bag. I thought the "fairytale" sentiment would go great with the book idea!

This wedding card uses the Limitless Layers: Heart Stitches dies again on the big heart. I used a new stamp set in the background called Solid Stitches and Swirls with Sweet Blush ink. Then I used an older set that coordinates with it over the top (the stitched look) from Stitches and Swirls in Melon Berry ink. Love the pink and melon color combo!

A friend gave me the wide ribbon yesterday when we got together for a little crafty exchange! Over the top of the big heart die, I used a sticker from Crate Paper from their Close Knit Adhesive Layered Embellishments.

And here's a coordinating gift tag with the Tag Sale #9 dies. The little label die is called Stitched Pinked Edge Label. I stamped more of the leaves from the card above and trimmed them out.

Last is an anniversary card. The arrow is from the new Valentine Stitches dies.

In the background again, I used the Stitches and Swirls and Solid Stitches and Swirls stamp sets in green and gold...something different, but I like it! The wooden veneer is by Amy Tan. Was going to paint it white, but decided to leave it plain so it shows up a little better against the white backgound. The chipboard is thick, but I stitched right over it with my sewing machine and it worked!!

Friday, December 13, 2013

Papertrey Ink has a new stamp set coming out on Dec. 15th called Happy Hearts, and the design team is hosting a little blog hop to show you lots of fun projects with it!

First, I used the new Cover Plate: Hearts to die cut this piece from white cardstock.

Next, I stamped a few of the hearts and placed them back in the cut outs. The card front is backed with white cardstock. A sentiment from the set is stamped in the blank area.

To make the arrow, I used a new die set called Cupid's Arrow and cut one from chipboard, then inked it with gray ink. Twine is wrapped around it and another heart placed on top! I chose a darker heart to be my focal point.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Are you ready for the holidays yet? I'm almost there, but have a bazillion gifts to wrap!

Pink Paislee is hosting a 12 Days of Christmas event on their blog right now with some fun crafty ideas, and I'm up for Day #4. I made a vellum pocket full of gift tags that you could gift to a friend, neighbor or coworker.

Here are the four tags that fit in the pocket. I kept them on the simpler side to keep room on them for writing "to/from". (You could fit many more tags in the pocket if you wanted to create more than 4!)

These two have twine at the top.

Or you can use any type of gift wrap ribbon from the craft store like I did on these two tags. The thin ribbon curls better.

This is a little detail pic of the reindeer tag. I just LOVE these Snow Village canvas stickers! You can see the whole Snow Village line HERE.

INSTRUCTIONS TO CREATE THE POCKET:

Step 1: Cut two pieces of vellum with Papertrey Ink's Front & Center die. (Place die over vellum and run it through your Cuttlebug or other manual die cutting machine.) Trim one down to cut off the handle. This is going to be the front of the pocket.

Step 2: Machine stitch around the sides and bottom of the pocket with a zig zag stitch. (OR you can simply adhere the sides and bottom.) Stamp "Christmas Joy" with the Snow Village stamps using Versamark Ink. Sprinkle gold embossing powder over the image and heat emboss to melt the embossing powder.

Step 3: Add a sticky-back canvas snowflake border sticker to the top edge of the pocket. Wrap twine around the pocket twice and tie in a bow. Trim ends if needed. Add a chipboard star, canvas snowflake sticker and a resin flourish. Adhere a few pieces of star confetti.

Here is the pocket without the tags. Simple, yet colorful and fun!

And with the tags. I really love using vellum right now, so the tags can be seen peeking out from inside. Makes you want to dig right in and see what's in there!

You can download a PDF to create this project and the tags at the Pink Paislee blog, grab a freebie, and comment for your chance to win. And don't forget to check out the other projects Dec. 9th - 20th by the Pink Paislee design team.

Pics are from last Christmas, putting up the tree, special ornaments, etc. With a circular design like this, you could add even more photos if you'd like. I love the way you can add a bunch of the patterns as well with this type of repetitive design, yet it's still clean and has a bit of white space to let your eye rest! I used cream cardstock under the patterned papers with a 2" circle punch to help them stand off from the white a bit more and slightly offset them.

I used the Snow Village 12 x 12" papers, the Snow Village clear stamps (stars and snowflakes in the background), the Kre8tive Kit (chipboard title and stickers), and some Luxe chipboard stars.

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Another layout made with the Snow Village line. I used the collage paper in the background and just added a few things over the top... the photos, a title, a couple of ribbons and chipboard stars, and the arrow clear stickers.

I love these canvas stickers from Snow Village (berries.) As you can see, I colored one of the stars and some of the Artisan ribbon with Heidi Swapp's Color Shine in Chartreuse.

Some of you have been asking what my news is regarding my design teams, and I'm sorry I haven't posted sooner, but I've been up in the air about a few things the past couple of weeks. You may have heard that American Crafts has acquired Pink Paislee. This is happy and sad news for me all at the same time! I've known Rebecca since 2005 and have been designing for her since she owned an online store called Create My Keepsake. When she opened Pink Paislee 6 years ago, she asked me to follow her to her new company. She was the first one who gave me a chance to join a paper manufacturer team, and I've always felt very dedicated to Pink Paislee. It has made me so happy to see its success over the years and to have been such a huge part of that success! Unfortunately, my role as Design Team and Blog Coordinator will be gone as of January, as part of the acquisition. I won't lie...I'm truly sad about this. Sad that my role with Pink Paislee has come to an end after all these years. But I know that all things happen for a reason, and I want to thank Rebecca and Barry for all they've done for me. They are very genuine people, have been so good to work for the past 8 years, and I'm so happy for them as they move to Utah and continue their journey with American Crafts. I can happily say I put my ALL into my time with Pink Paislee and feel proud that they've been so successful. Can't help but feel PP's success was in part because of me. :)

I have also decided not to renew my contract with Studio Calico. Their contract has changed for next year, and after giving it some thought, it just doesn't fit with what I need right now. I do love Studio Calico and the trends they set! They are always one step ahead of the game and always fun things happening there. I will still pop in and chat and ooh and aaah over the fabulous gallery there!

So where does this leave me? To be quite honest, I'm not sure, which is why I've been putting off publishing this post. My plans right now are continue crafting, hopefully stay on with Papertrey Ink and stamp my heart out (if they will keep me), and maybe begin some plans for stamp design concepts. When one door closes, another opens, so I'm looking forward to seeing what doors will open next. I am a little excited to craft JUST FOR FUN again as well!

I'll be back shortly with another Snow Village project. If you're still with me, thanks for reading my long post today...